ESCONDIDO: Tim Harmon named Teacher of Year in San Pasqual

GARY WARTH gwarth@nctimes.com

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From acting as DJ at school dances to escorting students on trips to Washington, D.C., Tim Harmon's busy schedule at San Pasqual School is just one reason he has been named the district's Teacher of the Year.

"He's deserving," said Gary Wilson, principal and superintendent at the San Pasqual Union School District in Escondido. "He is always out there, caring for colleagues, caring for students and caring to meet the needs of parents, the kids and the staff."

The district's Teacher of the Year is selected by a panel of former Teachers of the Year and administrators who consider nominations from all district employees. Teachers of the Year from all districts are in the running to be county, state and national Teachers of the Year.

Growing up the son of a Marine in Oceanside, where he lives with his wife and two children, Harmon, 45, said he came from a humble background and put himself through college while working two jobs.

"I wasn't the greatest student at high school," he said. "School was always a refuge for me, and I knew I could do well if I applied myself, but I didn't take it as seriously as I should have."

Harmon was more interested in pursuing a career in radio or television, which he studied at Palomar College after he graduated from El Camino High.

At Palomar, Harmon excelled in the radio department and became the KKSM production manager, one of only three paid positions at the college station.

But rather than falling in love with the broadcast medium, Harmon said he found something he liked better.

"I trained a lot of the students there and would work with them one on one," he said. "I really enjoyed that aspect of teaching, of transferring that knowledge and seeing the application and then seeing them successful. I got a rush from that."

Harmon had a job working the overnight shifts at radio station KKOS in Carlsbad while attending Palomar full time. He also supported himself for 10 years by working at Black Angus Steakhouse in Oceanside, where he bused tables, waited tables, tended bar and worked as a DJ.

"I didn't sleep that much," he said about that time. "It got to the point where it was like, all right, I've got to choose something here."

That something was teaching. Harmon enrolled at San Diego State University, where he studied social science and earned a teaching credential.

After working as a substitute teacher in Oceanside and Vista schools, Harmon was hired at San Pasqual 15 years ago. He has taught in primary grades and is a middle-school history and math teacher at the school.

As a teacher, Harmon said he tries to make subjects relevant and contemporary for his students.

"A few years ago, I challenged my kids in a world history class," he said. "We were doing a unit on Africa. I said, 'There's a big food shortage in Africa. Can we do something about it?'"

The class held a dance that raised $600 for Africa relief. Because he wanted students to help globally and locally, they donated another $600 to Interfaith Community Services in Escondido.

The dances have been held annually for the past four years. Harmon works as the dance DJ, a job he also does for other school events, friends' weddings and some Little League games.

Harmon also trains the school's honor guard to raise and lower the campus flag and runs the program to take eighth-graders to Washington, D.C., each summer. The trip also includes visits to Boston, Philadelphia and New York, and Harmon works as a DJ in annual school dances to help pay the way for some students.

Reflecting on being named the district's Teacher of the Year, Harmon said his strength is the time he takes to help people learn.

"I just have a lot of patience, and I try something new when somebody doesn't get something," he said.

His years of working in a restaurant, where he had to be constantly alert and have "a head on a swivel," also helped prepare him for working in a classroom, he said.